There is little more heinous in this world than the forced sexual assault on children. For decades children have been victimized not just by their perpetrator but by a justice system that again victimizes the child by doing nothing. Money speaks. Money buys silence. But at some point the shear magnitude of the crime becomes so vast, we have to listen no matter how difficult.
The Franklin Scandal of the 1980’s was notorious as it was said to involve politicians and uber wealthy individuals in authority. It was ultimately tabled, the evidence shunned and the entire horrific scenario pushed under a rug.
There rose another scandal in the UK in 2013 as upwards of 1400 children came forth from Rotherham and made claim to massive gang rape charges. The case has languished.
The Bethcar state run orphanage in Australia was the house of horrors for children systematically abused, raped, beaten and tortured during the 1970’s and 1980’s. It took thirty years before the state responded to any of the allegations. The Gordon’s. who ran the institution, were never charged.
In 2012, Jimmy Savile, a UK DJ, was found to have engaged in over 450 acts of sexual molestation over a period of some forty years. He was dead when the allegations surfaced. It is said the rapes occurred in state run hospitals, schools and at the BBC where he worked.
During the 1980’s another UK songwriter was imprisoned for sexually abusing young boys. Jonathan King was sentenced to seven years in the first of three trials. Upon his release, he went on to produce a number of films and write various books that would appear to have a rather macabre bent.
There were reports from Canada’s military of sexual abuse against young boys at bases in the Middle East. Despite the allegations surfacing two years ago, they have been more or less tabled.
Scandals continue to surface from the Roman Catholic Church. There was the Delaware pediatrician charged with sexual assaulting 103 children.
Now we have the UK unveiling another massive ring of 1400 child molesters whose ranks range from politicians, actors, musicians, and the sporting industry. Of the more than 1400 being investigated, over 200 are already dead. The claims state that the sexual abuse occurred at hospitals, sporting venues, schools, children’s homes, institutions, military establishments, religious institutions and prisons. The case is still in its early stages and anticipates the number of victims to reach into the hundreds of thousands.
While names have not been released, I imagine damage control is a frenzied agenda for all involved as they assert their power to quash any allegations. It is a massively inhumane revelation of our moral decline. The absolute lack of remorse is unimaginable. The idea that a person can act on this perverse sexual addiction for decades is beyond comprehension. Friends had to know – or be complicit. It is the tale of Michael Jackson that continues to shadow his legacy.
It is this absolute lack of compassion for a human life that seems so twisted. Will most of these 1433 perpetrators be convicted? Of will they arrest a few non-distinguishable offenders and wipe the slate clean? It is the problem of the system that is given the responsibility of vanquishing this injustice that seems to allow it’s continuation to go exponential. In the UK, despite child sex abuse having risen 60%, arrests have declined 9%. The exact sensibility that perps often use, ‘no one will believe you’, is held up by the powers that be. And children become property as opposed to human beings.
In the case of Robert Smith of the UK, allegations first arose in 1987. But it wasn’t until 2006 that he was actually charged and convicted, some twenty years later. The McMartin daycare case in the US produced little justice with no convictions made at all.
What does this teach our society? That the voices of children are filled with fantasy and tall tales that have no truth. That children don’t have rights, they are the property of adults. That adults will manipulate the system and the children will only be victimized – again.
Do I have faith that this new investigation in the UK will actually result in the conviction of heavy weight politicians, sports figures and celebrities? Scoff, no. They will buy their escape. And the children will only become more abused, more tortured, more fearful. And these ‘people’ will feel avenged in their smug entitlement.